On Wednesday, Feb. 25, from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., The Bridge in UW-Eau Claire’s Davies Student Center hosted an event titled “InQueery: History and Importance of Drag Culture.”

Part of a lineup of similar events, InQueery Sessions offer students an opportunity to learn more about queer identity, history and culture. The InQueery Sessions poster said, “the goal of InQueery is to promote curiosity, dialogue and deeper understanding within our campus community.” 

The presentations are created by the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center (GSRC) interns about a topic of their choosing and are open to everyone. 

This specific InQueery Session was created and curated by third-year public history student and current GSRC intern Jules Schwar.

Schwar said they wanted to create this presentation as a means to inform students about the history and significance of drag, in anticipation of the GSRC’s event “House of Blugold: a drag ball extravaganza.” The event happened following the presentation on Saturday, Feb. 28. 

“I wanted to do an event about drag prior to (House of Blugold) to help raise interest and awareness in our drag event,” Schwar said. “I’m a history student, so I wanted to include a lot of history elements as well.” 

Schwar, who has been an intern at the GSRC since last Sep., said they have presented InQueery events in the past, notably one about how Halloween is popular among queer individuals. 

The presentation began with a definition of drag, highlighting how drag is a performance art heightening masculinity, femininity and other forms of gender expression rooted in freedom and resiliency towards unjust forces. 

Rooted in freedom of expression and resiliency towards unjust forces, Schwar said drag challenges traditional gender norms and stereotypes. 

“Anyone, regardless of the gender they were assigned at birth, what gender they identify as, how they typically express themselves, etc, can perform any type of drag,” Schwar said. “However you want to do drag, you can do drag.” 

With origins in Greek and Shakespearean theater, Schwar said, back then, most roles — both female and male — were played by males. The term drag is cited to come from actors’ dresses dragging across the floor.   

Drag became closely associated with the queer community during the 1920s, Schwar said. Notably, Vaudeville, a theatrical genre, featured many drag queen performers. 

Schwar, during the presentation, also made it a point to talk about — not only the history of drag as a whole — but the history of drag kings specifically. They said most people only hear about the history and culture surrounding drag queens, not drag kings. 

Em Luebke, GSRC Student Services Coordinator and UW-Eau Claire alum, said that while they were in undergrad, they were also a GSRC intern. Through their undergrad to the present, they have been with the GSRC for six years. 

“When I started this position, one [thing] that I really wanted to start implementing into our internship was some sort of educational component for interns to be able to learn more about queer culture,” Luebke said. “That’s where InQueery Sessions kind of started.”

The InQueery Sessions first started running last fall, Luebke said, and each GSRC intern is required to do at least one session. 

With nine sessions this semester, the next InQueery Session will be held on Wednesday, March 4, from 11:30 p.m. to 12:30 p.m in The Bridge. 

Hirata can be reached at [email protected]